Anytime
by lumoscrimsom
Summary: Sirius and James spy on Remus and Lily in the Prefect's bath. Sirius is confused as to why Remus wants to hurt him without hurting him and James gets hot and bothered by Lily in a towel.


**Disclaimer: **Anything you recognise isn't mine. Boo.

**A/N:** Something simple and fairly plotless. Fluff, I s'pose, with a sprinkle of humour. Enjoy!

The Prefect's bathroom of Hogwarts was a wonderful place. It was a place to relax, to escape the pressures of controlling the unruly teenage population of the school and the suspicious eyes of their watchful teachers. It was a place to sink into warm water and frothy bubbles and take a nap whilst your muscles unwound and your brain switched off. It was also a place to gossip, as were all communal areas.

Every Thursday night, two Gryffindor sixth year Prefects could be found relaxing in the bath – currently in two halves, one for the boys and the other for the girls, separated by a magical opaque barrier that appeared when such a situation occurred – chatting aimlessly about their lessons of the day and discussing various aspects of their homework. Of course, this was only the pre-gossip talk. Two close friends in a private space with nothing to do but relax and chat have but one destiny – to gush over their crushes together.

Remus and Lily both sat with their backs against the barrier, up to their necks in sweet smelling bubble bath, fragrant steam rising around them and turning their faces a flushed pink that had a little to do with the subject of conversation as well as the heat of the room.

"Tell him." Remus said abruptly, cutting of Lily's rant about James' mischief in their latest Herbology lesson. She stopped and sputtered wordlessly from behind the barrier, making Remus laugh. "Tell James that you like him."

"I…" Lily trailed off and sighed, "You know what my answer to _that_ is, Rem."

"No, of course." Remus smiled in amusement, "But you haven't yet told me your reasoning."

"What if…what if it's all just a game? What if, once I've said yes, he loses interest?"

Remus was quiet for a moment lifting a dripping hand from the water and running it through his hair to sweep the long strands from his eyes, before answering, "You know I love you like a sister, Lils," he said in an even voice, "But hearing you say that about one of my best friends makes me a little irritable. James isn't like that. We both know that – I realise why you would use that as an excuse, but would prefer you didn't. If it gets back to him that you have such low opinions of him, I trust he _will_ lose interest, whether the loss be forced or not. It's not fair, Lily."

"I know, I'm sorry." Lily said with a heavy sigh, "Okay, so it's not a game, but…"

"But?"

"What if I'm not what he expects? He's built up this image of me that most likely isn't anywhere near what I'm really—"

"Lily, just tell him." Remus chuckled, "You're starting to get as bad as him. I can't talk to either of you without hearing stressful worries about the other. It's the same for me, you know – with Sirius, I mean."

"He _likes_ you?" Lily gasped as there was a sudden splash of water.

"No, but I should be offended at your disbelief." Remus laughed again, shaking his head even though she couldn't see him, "What I meant was, if I ever told him that I liked him, would he be disgusted by what I really am – gay? Or would he just be disappointed that I've kept another secret from him?"

"You had to keep your lycanthropy a secret." Lily said quietly.

"I know. But to him, it would just be another secret kept. He hates that. Like with you and James, I'm scared he'll see that I'm not the honest person he thought I was, that the image he's built up is nothing but an illusion."

"Or he might understand." Lily said, the frown Remus knew was gracing her face practically audible in her voice, "He could be ready to accept anything about you."

"Exactly." Remus smirked, watching the pastel coloured bubbles rise to the ceiling and gather there without bursting. He waited for Lily to catch on and chuckled when she did.

"Eugh, fine. You, Remus Lupin, are a deceivingly sneaky person." She sighed, "But I do think you're wrong about Sirius. Honestly? He might be a little angry at first, but not for long, I bet. He can't live without his _Moony_."

"It's still weird to hear you calling me that." Remus grinned, "But I like it." His smile faded, "No more secrets between me and _one_ of my friends, at least."

Lily, refusing to get caught up in Remus' increasingly sombre attitude, changed the subject with something she knew would capture his attention, "If you had the courage to tell Sirius how you felt, how would it go?"

"Why?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"Just to give me some ideas. You know, in case I decide to tell James."

"Of course," Remus said sceptically, but answered anyway, "Well…"

* * *

"I'm telling you, we're too late!" James hissed as he and Sirius shuffled under the invisibility cloak down the fifth floor corridor to the door beside the statue of Boris the Bewildered, "Evans is gonna be there and I'm gonna get hexed _again_, all because you want to spy on Remus naked!"

"Keep your voice down." Sirius snapped, glaring at his friend, "I swear to Merlin, if I hear _that_ going around as a rumour tomorrow at breakfast, I will personally skin you and then feed you to the squid."

"Jeez, calm down." James muttered as they calm to a stop, "I still don't get why you needed me to come down with you. I've told you to password."

"In case Evans _is_ in there and catches us, I've got the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain who can legitimately be in there." Sirius whispered, "You can be the distraction."

"Gee, thanks." James said, his voice drenched in sarcasm, "Only the guy I see as my bloody brother would throw me in front of the girl of my dreams armed with no more than my broken pride."

"You've got your wand, you pansy." Sirius tutted, disgusted at his friend's cowardice.

"Says the guy who wants to perv on his mate in the bath." James shot back. Sirius stuck his tongue out childishly and whispered the password at the door. They crept into the bathroom and closed the door behind them softly as they emerged into the immediate hanging area. Voices – a male's and a female's – could be heard from the bath. Sirius instantly recognised Remus' and Evans' voices and shucked the cloak to creep closer, staying behind the wall in case anyone saw him. He heard James follow as the voices grew loud enough to listen to.

"Of course." Remus was saying in that cynical voice he usually used when Sirius was trying to convince him that their next prank wouldn't end in detention. "Well…"

"Evans must be in there." James breathed, leaning around to look at the bath, "The partition's up."

"Wait," Sirius shushed, silencing James with a finger, "Remus sounds weird. If that cow has upset him—"

"I could just grab him," Remus had continued, effectively shutting Sirius up, "I mightn't be able to control myself, but if I couldn't, if I lost control, he could get hurt." The werewolf laughed, sending a pleasant shiver down Sirius' spine. "You see, I can get…rough."

Evans giggled, her voice laced with girlish, delighted surprise, "Really? There's something I never knew about you, Rem."

Sirius and James exchanged a puzzled glance. "What are they talking about?" James asked under his breath. Sirius shrugged.

"Sounds like Moony's angry with someone and wants to beat them up…but is scared he'll hurt them?" Sirius answered in a whisper, knowing his answer sounded stupid. James gave him a sceptical eyebrow lift that seconded the opinion.

"But…" Remus' voice softened and Sirius did a little dance to get James to stop saying whatever he was about to say in reply. "I could be gentle. I could take him to the side in the common room, or take him up to the dormitory and just talk to him."

"I didn't realise Sirius provoked so much in you." Lily mused, making Sirius' jaw drop and James titter as his best friend's misfortune silently, pointing and jeering. Sirius gulped, wondering what he had done to provoke Remus enough to make him want to hurt him or worse, _talk_ about it. He shuddered, slumping back against the wall and sending James a despairing glare. James sobered up and mouthed to Sirius that they should stay to see if either Prefect mentioned the reason behind Remus' anger.

"Indeed." Remus was saying thoughtfully, "It's quite intense, really."

"So, what if you knew it wouldn't work out? What then?" Evans asked. Sirius' brow furrowed. Their conversation was growing more and more curious – if _what_ wouldn't work out? James leant against the wall beside him and whispered that he was getting a bit 'hot' knowing that Evans was on the other side of the room, naked. Sirius flapped his hands and shushed him urgently as Remus answered.

"Then I would…" Remus hesitated and then sighed resignedly, "I'd go for it before I missed the last chance I would ever get."

Sirius was about to propose to leave, obviously getting nowhere with deciphering Remus' mysterious conversation and more than a little dismayed to hear that his favourite werewolf was upset with him – especially since he didn't have any clue as to _why_ – when Remus continued.

"I'd push him up against the nearest solid surface and kiss him 'til I pass out from a lack of oxygen, just to know what it might have been like if I could have had him."

James started to splutter and cough in shock, but Sirius managed to cover his mouth on time. His ears pricked as though he was in canine form, listening in case the other two had heard James' reaction and they had to make a dash for it. Luckily, Merlin seemed to be on Sirius' side and hadn't let Remus or Evans hear the sounds of James' capability to be surprised finally giving up and dying.

Meanwhile, Sirus' thoughts were going a mile a minute as his heart attempted to pound right out of his chest. Remus wanted to kiss _him_? Remus wanted to _kiss_ him? _Remus_ wanted to kiss him? …Remus wanted to kiss him. He _wasn't_ angry with Sirius, he _reciprocated_ his non-platonic feelings – so by _rough_, he meant...Sirius felt his blood rush south at the thought and desperately tried to calm himself down before he alerted the others of their presence by having his heart leap from his ribcage in a bloody mess on the tiles.

Evans laughed again and said something Sirius couldn't hear above the fanfare mixed with the wedding march in his head. James hissed something urgently and threw the cloak over the both of them and pressed back against the wall. Sirius came back down to reality in time to witness James salivating as Evans walked into the changing area wearing only a towel wrapped around her and dripping sweet smelling water across the tiles. He nudged James and gave his friend a wink as Evans collected her clothes from a locker and stepped into a changing cubical which didn't do a lot to hide much, seeing as you could still see her from her shoulders and up to her mid-thigh.

"Merlin." James breathed, sounding winded, "I need to…err…I have to go to…"

Without another word, he disappeared around the corner to the exit, taking the cloak with him. Sirius panicked silently for a split second, hoping up and down a bit – Evans, luckily, occupied with drying her hair the muggle way, her towel now covering her face – before calming himself and quickly garnering the courage to do something worthwhile of any screaming Evans would throw at him later when she found out he was watching her change with James. Which she would; she _always_ found out. Always.

Sirius hurried to pad through into the bath area, feet silent on the tiles, where he cast a silencing charm on the archway to the changing room and proceeded to rid himself of his clothing. Remus had changed position, luckily, his back to Sirius and his eyes closed as he reclined in the steam and bubbles, so didn't notice the extra company until it was slipping into the hot water beside him with a satisfied sigh.

"Sirius!" Remus gasped, slipping and dunking himself under the water in surprise. Sirius waited patiently as the other boy emerged and wiped the bubbles from his face and hair, coughing. "What…? You're not allowed in here." He said weakly. Sirius watched with a poorly hidden grin as Remus flushed red, knowing that was never a valid reason where _he_ was concerned and obviously wondering if he had heard any of his and Evans' rather revealing conversation. Being the kind man he was, Sirius decided to put the nervous werewolf out of his misery.

"Soooo…" he said slowly, giving Remus a sideways look, one side of his mouth quirking up into a crooked smile, "You can get rough, huh?"

Remus instantly went pale and looked close to fainting. He covered his face with his hands and shook his head as he groaned, "No, no, no, you heard me. Oh, Merlin, you heard everything—"

Sirius cut him off with a firm kiss on his jabbering lips, effectively silencing him. Remus stayed stock still for a long moment, making Sirius' resolve waver, but soon shook himself and responded. Remus was the one to open the kiss up and make it deeper, drawing Sirius closer with warm underwater hands and wetting his hair by running his dripping fingers through it. When they pulled apart, Remus gave him a shy smile that contradicted his enthusiasm a moment before and made Sirius want to envelop him in a bear hug and never let go.

"So you…as well?" Remus asked vaguely, a look of worry worming its way back into his expression. Sirius leaned forward to place a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth in an attempt to make the worry disappear.

"Yeah," he grinned, "Me as well."

Remus beamed at him and flung himself into Sirius' arms with one of those rare bouts of self-indulgence he had mentioned to Evans earlier, knocking them into the side of the bath.

"Merlin, sorry Pads, I just…" he shrugged as he recoiled, his smile reducing into an embarrassed grimace as he tried to pull away. Sirius held fast, giving the werewolf a knowing wink.

"Don't worry about that," Sirius smirked, "You can get rough with me anytime."


End file.
